NCJ Number
188932
Journal
Prison Journal Volume: 81 Issue: 2 Dated: June 2001 Pages: 271-286
Date Published
June 2001
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This article describes a program in Brooklyn, NY, intended to improve the educational and vocational potential of participating defendants charged with drug law offenses and presents preliminary process and outcome statistics.
Abstract
Drug offenders develop chronic dependence on the drug economy for their subsistence. Brooklyn’s Drug Treatment Alternative-to-Prison (DTAP) seeks to correct this problem by diverting drug-addicted felons into residential treatment with strong educational and vocational training components and by providing job counseling and placement to program graduates through a job developer and a business advisory council. DTAP targets nonviolent drug felons who commit crimes to support their drug addictions and who face mandatory prison sentences under the New York State Second-Felony Offender Law. DTAP applies legal coercion, through the threat of lengthy incarceration, to motivate drug-addicted defendants to choose and complete treatment. Data from the 406 participants who successfully completed treatment as of October 1999 revealed that participants made extensive use of the educational and vocational opportunities during treatment and that employment rates increased from the 26 percent pretreatment level to 92 percent after treatment completion. Results also indicated that graduates who were working at the time of treatment completion were more than 50 percent less likely to be rearrested during the 3-year follow-up. Findings indicated that DTAP improved employment, which reduced recidivism. However, the massive restructuring of the urban economy will quickly dissipate such short-term successes unless local, State, and national policies emerge that promote the creation of jobs that offer real opportunities for achieving permanent economic emancipation. Tables, figure, notes, and 13 references (Author abstract modified)